The Wii U is criminally underrated - it's one of the best consoles ever made

Gator86 said:
Honest question: if the WiiU library is great, what system doesn't have a great library? So many people talk about the great library and I don't see it at all. Yes, it has some great games, but a great library? What is the standard here?
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It has about a dozen or so great games. Almost any console I can think of has that many, except the Jaguar I guess?

Wii U... Better than the Jaguar at least?
 
Riesenfass said:
It has about a dozen or so great games. Almost any console I can think of has that many, except the Jaguar I guess?

Wii U... Better than the Jaguar at least?
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This is basically what I was thinking. Like, what console doesn't have a one or two dozen great games? The WiiU has a terrific library is basically just a more positive way to say "this console exists."
 
I have a Wii U, I like the Wii U, I love some of the Wii U's games.

It isn't even in the running for "best console ever made".
 
Games-wise, the Wii U is basically the N64's heir: A nice selection of top-notch games, but if even a few of those don't interest you...then it's time to start digging for hidden gems or just go retro, because there's not much else beyond the big-time titles. Then there's the system itself, which was more of a Switch prototype than its own thing. And, thanks to the gamepad, the Wii U spat in the face of nearly everything that made the Wii easy to market.

So while the Wii U isn't the completely worthless piece of trash it's often made out to be, let's not give it more credit than it deserves, it's no Gamecube or Dreamcast. Those consoles didn't deserve the reception they got, while the Wii U pretty much performed exactly how it should've. It was an extremely misguided, messy, and nigh-impossible to market console with a very good, but also very limited library. No more, no less.
 
It had a dozen good games and thats it. Everything else about the console was lackluster to bad.

It's basically the equivalent of a modern Jaguar.
 
The worst thing about the U was how Nintendo stopped giving a fuck about it way too early in it's life, heck, almost from the day it was announced, starting with it's name.
 
One example: the gamepad is always trying to connect to the console. So if you don't touch your console for some days, your gamepad battery will have been drained by doing nothing.

I am still amazed at how stupid this is.

And the gamepad battery is so shitty I got used to play it as a wired pad.
 
Pikmin 3, Xenoblade X, Bayonetta 2, 3D World and BOTW were all fantastic. These plus indies and virtual console games played on Off TV mode (which I really loved) made the Wii U a really nice system for me.

At least one year more of lifetime + some support from third parties (especially Japanese) and it would've been perfect.
 
Funny thing about the Wii U is how I have it hooked up next to my Switch, but it doesn't feel last gen. I know the Switch is somewhat more powerful, but we haven't really seen it reflected in the software yet. So I can go back and forth between Wii U, Switch, and PS4, and they all compliment each other well.
 
It's not even one of Nintendo's best console let alone best console ever. Sure it might be better than the Wii but that's not much of a accomplishment.

The Wii U was bad hardware for premium price with a gimmick controller they did nothing interesting with (their best idea was to just use it as a tablet in Super Mario Maker) but it does have a handful of high quality games. Not enough to be considered one of the greats though.
 
Herb Alpert said:
One example: the gamepad is always trying to connect to the console. So if you don't touch your console for some days, your gamepad battery will have been drained by doing nothing.

I am still amazed at how stupid this is.

And the gamepad battery is so shitty I got used to play it as a wired pad.
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I can't imagine why you wouldn't drop the gamepad into the charging cradle between play sessions.
 
To me it's their worst home console ever, but I mean this is so subjective a topic it's hard to really argue that much. If there were a handful of games that someone absolutely adored on it, I could see them personally loving it.
 
I loved all the games they put out on it. However, they were limited in number and they stopped supporting the console quickly.

NOLA_Gaffer said:
I can't imagine why you wouldn't drop the gamepad into the charging cradle between play sessions.
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Didn't the cheapo version not have a charging cradle?
 
It's absolutely their weakest home console ever. Most of the first party games were stellar, but that's standard from Nintendo and judging it against every other home machine that came before it it's worse. A fragmented mess with too many control schemes, very little 3rd party support, and a poorly chosen name that caused the gimmicky gamepad to be mistaken as a Wii accessory by laymen

Still, Mario Kart and 3D world justified my purchase of the system. It may have a a fairly small lineup of software, but it's still a Nintendo lineup. It's also a pity Miiverse never really took off, I liked the idea
 
It's my least favorite Nintendo console. No Metroid, no proper grand Mario adventure, etc. Highly disagree, the Wii U was junk.
 
VDenter said:
Wii U was decent but it was by far Nintendo's worst console. The best thing about it is the backwards compatibility with the Wii and Gaemcube if you mod the system. The Wii U is certainly not the best of anything really. It has maybe four must play title and a couple of dozen simply good titles. No matter how objectively i try to look at it the first party output was at its worst from Nintendo. It had the best iteration of Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Country still most of Wii Us first party library felt basically the 3DS line on HD steroids. Since i played the crap out of the 3DS most of the Wii U library seemed incredibly safe and sterile. There was nothing ambitious about games like Star Fox Zero or New Super Mario Bros U for example.

Putting all of this aside some titles that one would expect were missing completely. (Metroid) (Animal Crossing) The systems life was cut so short that it never even got its own exclusive Zelda game. Even Retro Studios only had time to work on one title. The third party games were none existent and the few that made it to the system usually could be found cheaper on any other device but games had to carry that Nintendo tax. Not to mention some of its best games will probably be ported as soon as possible and games like Splatoon will become obsolete as soon as the sequel hits.

The virtual console was garbage especially for us here in Europe where Nintendo was still serving broken ports of 50hz games.Oh and lets not even get started with the Gamepad aka the worst controller ever made.The WII U left no impact on the gaming landscape it was just sort of there. Calling it the Dreamcast of Nintendo systems is an insult to the Dreamcast and i am not even a fan of the Dreamcast personally.
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Well said. Smash 4, MK8, DKC:TP, WWHD, TPHD, and 2D Marios plus homebrew of Wii and GCN support were the best things about the system. Otherwise, the console just flat out sucked.

The gamepad in particular is one of my least favorite things about the system - poor battery life, low resolution and resistive touchscreen, clunky/chunky hardware, proprietary charging cable and being forced to use it to change settings and go into the eShop? What a stupid controller.
 
Nintendo failed to learn one of the lessons of the Dreamcast failure:

Nobody wants to look at their goddamn controllers while they're playing on a TV.

The DS concept works because the two screens are right next to each other, making it easy to shift focus between the two with little to no effort. By contrast, switching from the TV screen to the gamepad is a giant mental context switch that never feels natural.

That leaves off-screen play, which is nice, but it seems to introduce input lag and the screen is poor quality.
 
Hollywood Duo said:
Didn't the cheapo version not have a charging cradle?
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Correct, but the charging cradles hit bargain bins something like six months after the launch of the system so there was really no excuse not to have one.

I remember trying to track one down in 2015 at Gamestop while buying Disney Infinity albums and the clerk just gave me one they had sitting around that they couldn't sell.
 
Please understand that I've owned two games for it. One of which was at launch. The least amount of games of any console I've ever owned up until now.
 
Hahahha noooo, noooo, just no

I handed off my Wii U to my buddy so he could play Zelda and he's gonna hand it off to HIS buddy
 
Not a fan of the hardware, but really enjoy the software. It helps though that I hadn't owned a Nintendo system since the SNES. So the Wii backwards compatibility was a nice bonus for me.

Oh and I love the fact that Fire Emblem and Advance Wars GBA are on the eshop since I never played those years ago.

Honestly just Splatoon and the SMT/FE crossover game would have been enough to justify my purchase. My wife and I have spent way too many hours on Splatoon.

The Wii U got me hooked on Nintendo games again. The only genre I wish it had more of is RPGs. Fortunately the 3DS has an abundance of them.

Can't believe I skipped so many good Nintendo games over the years.
 
Xist2inspire said:
Games-wise, the Wii U is basically the N64's heir: A nice selection of top-notch games, but if even a few of those don't interest you...then it's time to start digging for hidden gems or just go retro, because there's not much else beyond the big-time titles. Then there's the system itself, which was more of a Switch prototype than its own thing. And, thanks to the gamepad, the Wii U spat in the face of nearly everything that made the Wii easy to market.

So while the Wii U isn't the completely worthless piece of trash it's often made out to be, let's not give it more credit than it deserves, it's no Gamecube or Dreamcast. Those consoles didn't deserve the reception they got, while the Wii U pretty much performed exactly how it should've. It was an extremely misguided, messy, and nigh-impossible to market console with a very good, but also very limited library. No more, no less.
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Games-wise, the N64 is far ahead of the Wii U with more of everything except RPGs. Compare the top 100 of each and it's pretty grim for the Wii U. Past the top two dozen there's not much else and throughout it's padded with indie ports that are better elsewhere. N64 on the other hand is much better rounded with good-to-great "A" middleware titles. I would say the Gamecube was the N64's heir (and then some).Wii U was Nintendo's worst after the Virtual Boy.

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/wii-u/filtered

http://retro-sanctuary.com/Top-100-N64-Games-Page-1.html
 
Sanctuary said:
Please understand that I've owned two games for it. One of which was at launch. The least amount of games of any console I've ever owned up until now.
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You've missed out on some great games. On topic, as much as I love the Wii U and as much as I don't really care about it being underpowered and having a slim library, it isn't a great console as a whole. Also, has anyone managed to find out yet what the fuck Nintendo were actually doing between late 2010 and late 2013. I'm still at a loss as to how their output was so scant. And I don't accept the "getting used to HD" BS. This is a company who had to "get used to" inventing the 3d platformer and reinventing Zelda in 3d. Something else must've been going on...
 
I really like the console but the gamepad create more problems than it solved.

It would be my netflix machine if I didn't have to turn the display off everytime I use it.
 
cyberheater said:
Not awful. Just underpowered.
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If you normalize for 2012 release versus 2017 release, Wii U was more powerful for the time than Switch is now.

Nobody knew what the fuck it was, though.

Fantastic games on the Wii U, glad I have mine, even though the system failed and I leave the Gamepad docked for most games.
 
Criminally underrated? Nope. People recognize it for what it is: a shitty piece of hardware with a handful of brilliant games which got abandoned far too soon.

I love my Wii U but I could never recommend it to anyone even with top of the class titles like Bayonetta 2, Tropical Freeze, and Mario 3D World.
 
Gator86 said:
Honest question: if the WiiU library is great, what system doesn't have a great library? So many people talk about the great library and I don't see it at all. Yes, it has some great games, but a great library? What is the standard here?
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I generally only consider games that are best-versions or exclusives.

Following that, the PS4 had an extremely small number of great games for a very long time, for example.
 
Ok well.. I agree the Wii U might be a bit underrated, but to call it one of the best consoles ever made? Idk man..

Underrated and best console award goes to Vita tbh
 
I have put thousands of hours into my Wii u but it wasnt the greatest nintendo system it had a lot of flaws but still the games were fantastic.
 
gblues said:
Nintendo failed to learn one of the lessons of the Dreamcast failure:

Nobody wants to look at their goddamn controllers while they're playing on a TV.

The DS concept works because the two screens are right next to each other, making it easy to shift focus between the two with little to no effort. By contrast, switching from the TV screen to the gamepad is a giant mental context switch that never feels natural..
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Yeah I've thought this since the beginning and I've never really understood how it got through Nintendo's R+D because it makes very little sense. It was just like yeah let's make a console DS except oops it doesn't work the same at all practically.
 
When all the gaffers in here have wiped their butts and the doodoo has fertilized the ground around it, and many years go by, Wii U will have dreamcast status. I need to send mine in for repairs :(. It will be the new Dreamcast, only far more sought-after and expensive. It doesn't matter if it had 2MB of ram, the gaming experiences it offers are unique, super high quality, and unfound anywhere else. It can play the entire wii library and with modification, I believe you can play the entire gamecube library. That's called GOAT.

There's a reason it's already $400 everywhere, which makes me sad because I wanted to get a second one for longevity. I've decided to purchase a second Wii U before a switch because it's so damn unique and packs so many native experiences in one console. I also am behind on so many quality titles. But they are so expensive now.
 
Morts said:
No, but the Wii U Pro Controller is criminally underrated.
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True...

When I sold my Wii U a few months back, I kept my Pro Controller. Awesome battery life and very comfortable. It's my go-to controller on my PC besides my Rockcandy 360 gamepad. It's good for emulation on the SNES and of course Dolphin, due to the matching buttons.
 
It's fantastic. Bad name, bad marketing, bad implementation. Good games, good UI, good backwards compatibility.

RIP WiiU 😍 You will be remembered like the Dreamcast and GameCube.
 
GreatestHits said:
When all the gaffers in here have wiped their butts and the doodoo has fertilized the ground around it, and many years go by, Wii U will have dreamcast status. I need to send mine in for repairs. It is the new Dreamcast, it doesn't matter if it has 2MB pf ram, the gaming experiences it offers are unique, super high quality, and unfound anywhere else. It can play the entire wii library and with modification, I believe you can play the entire gamecube library. That's called GOAT.

There's a reason it's already $400 everywhere, whjch makes me sad because I wanted to get a second one for longevity. I've decided to purchase a second Wii U before a switch because it's so damn unique and packs so many native experiences in one console. But they are ao expensive now
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You can get a Wii U refurbished from Nintendo for $200. Take off the rose-colored glasses.
 
My Wii U for the entirety of its life span went from being my favourite console ever to gathering dust for six months at a time. It has some of my favourite games of all time on it like Mario Kart 8 and Yoshi's Wooly World, but the system really did nothing to improve the games substantially. Every game that had pro controller support got played with the pro controller.

I really will miss Miiverse, though. Nintendo really needs to bring that over to the Switch.
 
Bronetta said:
Criminally underrated? Nope. People recognize it for what it is: a shitty piece of hardware with a handful of brilliant games which got abandoned far too soon.

I love my Wii U but I could never recommend it to anyone even with top of the class titles like Bayonetta 2, Tropical Freeze, and Mario 3D World.
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Nailed it. This exact same thread being created once a months shows that everyone is basically on the same page.

Although I personally think the Mario titles were mediocre (for Mario games!), including Mario Maker (the game is awesome but the network stuff around it is terrible).

And as much as I love games like Captain Toad, Mario Maker, and the Wind Waker HD... those should have been $20 games.
 
jrh2 said:
You can get a Wii U refurbished from Nintendo for $200. Take off the rose-colored glasses.
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Call my affection what you want, you're just riding the hyperbole train. And I mean it, thank you.. I will purchase one this week : )

I think people get attached to consoles like they do political parties. If a representative for their party doesn't do well, they resent said representative, no matter how well they do this or that. Just enjoy what it does right. Time will show you it's value
 
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